Saturday, February 7, 2009

Sometimes it's one or two people that can really change how your stay in the hospital goes. Our son was admitted last Saturday to Mary Washington Hospital with low oxygen levels due to what we were to find out was pneumonia. We had been to the doctor earlier in the week, and had been giving breathing treatments for a respiratory virus, but then a followup visit indicated he was having more trouble we took him to the ER. Two nights stay and a few x-rays and treatments later he was released and is now improving every day.

Several of us have been having a discussion over at Fred2Blue about the interesting questions you get asked during the admitting process. This apparently has gotten back to management, as they changed the way they ask you religious preferences. (Instead of "what religion are you" it is now "do you have any religious preferences that would affect care".) Bravo MWH for listening to your patients.

But the real success of this visit isn't the doctors, or most of the staff. They did their job, but it was pretty average. What set this visit apart was an RN named Jeff, who knew how to crack a joke, or could wait a short bit if Bennett was sleeping, or would talk to us about treatment and find out our feeding schedule so he could plan certain medications. Jeff was there most days that we were, and was just the biggest help to us, the parents, who were going through their child's first hospital stay.

The second person who really went over and above was a respiratory guy named Coffee (pronounced Ko-fee). He gave us pointers on what's needed to get a good breathing treatment in. He also showed us how to pat the side/back to get more of the mucus out and relieve him of some congestion. He knew that we were going to be taking him home and wouldn't have the advantages of the hospitals suction equipment.

The rest of the stay was nice, but like any medical facility these days, it pays to listen and remember what each doctor says. More than once, it was one of us remembering something that had people going back into the chart and notes and going 'oh yeah, there it is'. Or remembering that we could get discharged after a last round of antibiotic shots - I wonder what time we would have gotten out of there if we hadn't asked if they were going to discharge us. The best one is remembering that up to 3 months, a natural pain killer is sugar water called sweeties. Had we not requested this bit of relief for our little guy, several rounds of IVs and shots would have been 'grin & bear it'. At least this time they should have the right insurance card.